Watch Us Run
by emmasfairytale
Summary: It's a typical day in Storybooke until Emma notices the presence of a mysterious blue box. Having watched every Doctor Who episode in existence, she pulls Killian into a trip through time and space that they will (hopefully) walk out of in one piece.


"LooklooklooklookLOOK!"

Emma yanked Killian's arm nearly out of its socket as she pulled him down Storybrooke's main street. He had never seen her so ecstatic about something since she'd introduced him to Netflix. They bolted down the sidewalk as he passed apologetic looks at a few curious pedestrians, but Emma didn't slow down for a second.

She finally halted in front of the hulking telephone booth, dust coating its edges. Killian scrutinized it for a second. "Very intriguing, Swan."

Emma's hand flew to her forehead. "Oh my god, Killian, not _this._ " She pulled him behind the first telephone box, and then he saw it.

There was an enormous blue box looming over the first one - a box that had definitely not been there the night before. White letters adorned the top of the box, glowing faintly.

"Police call box? Since when does the town need one of those? Isn't that what your talking phone is for?"

Emma was jumping up and down in place. "Killian, don't you remember? This is from the TV show I keep watching, the one with all of the different faces?"

Killian furrowed his brow and thought back to a few days ago, when he'd blearily stumbled into the kitchen and found Emma fast asleep on the couch, the television still on and blaring an eerily high-pitched theme song. Come to think of it, the blue box zipping around the screen that night held odd similarities to the one before him now.

"Is it from that health show? Mr. Why?"

Emma chuckled and looped her arm into his. "Doctor Who. It's the TARDIS." Her eyes sparkled. "Time and Relative Dimension in Space. Killian, this machine can take us anywhere and any _when_ \- and we'd still be home at the same moment as when we left."

"So like our little trip to the past when we helped your parents meet?"

"Yeah, kind of like that." Emma bit her lip. "There's only one thing… Usually, you need a TARDIS key to get in. But we don't have one." Her eyes swept over the box. "Maybe there's a secret entrance from one of the sides. I imagine the Doctor would have thought of that."

Emma began pacing around the box, running her hands over its edges and leaning in close. "Maybe one of the windows folds in?" She tried unscrewing the lights, pulling off the "Police Call Box" label, even rustling the top piece of the box to see if there were any loose ends. Nothing.  
"Hmm… ooh! What if there's a way to get in from the bottom? Maybe we can turn it on its side… Killian, come here and help me tilt it over."

Killian, who had been watching his girlfriend's efforts for some time, sighed and shifted his weight from where he'd been leaning on the box. His shoulder rested on one of the doors, transferring his weight onto them, and he stumbled backwards as they swung open behind him. Emma raced to him and the two of them peered up at the gaping wide blue doors.

"I guess someone forgot to lock it?"

Killian ran outside and back into the box approximately eleven times. "Are you sure this isn't some sort of trick, Swan?" He demanded. "It is dangerously close to that April day."

Emma smiled drily. "Killian, it's July. And besides, this is way too crazy a stunt for me to dream up." She skirted around the inside of the TARDIS as if living in a dream - and to her, it certainly felt like one. She'd binge-watched every episode of Doctor Who, including the classics, and the TARDIS had captivated her from the moment she first set eyes on it. To be able to go to any time and place in existence, to have that much freedom - where would you even start?

Well, they were about to find out.

Emma turned and ran back towards Killian, inching towards the center console. "Okay, where should we go first?"

Killian took three pronounced steps back. "Where should we go? Swan, are you sure you know how to pilot this thing? It doesn't look anything like the Jolly. I have no idea where this medic procured such a vessel."

"It's the Doctor, Killian, and he got it from Gallifrey. He's an alien with two… never mind. I'll explain later. It's not that hard, I don't think… we should be able to do it. And besides, how bad can it be?" Darting around the vehicle, she began tapping buttons one at a time. A thrumming sound filled the air, like the buzzing of millions of bees.

"Choose a time and place, Killian. Any time and place."

Killian looked at Emma, the anticipation spilling out of her eyes, and knew he couldn't deny her this. They might end up at the bottom of one of the god-knows-how-many oceans he was trying to memorize, but he knew there was no talking Emma out of something she'd set her mind on. The only way out of this was through.

"Okay, let's go to… someplace wet. Out at sea."

She looked at him conspiratorially. "Okay, I think we can do that." She slammed her hand down on a button, and the world tilted sideways. Killian crashed into the bars behind him and yelped as he felt the metal digging into his back.

"Swan, are you okay?"

"Never been better!"

A strange sucking sound kept ringing in his ears, impossible to describe. It wasn't loud or intruding, but it was there all the same. Killian still heard it even when the noise had faded and Emma was pulling him eagerly towards the TARDIS door.

"Here we are… our first stop!"

Killian heard where they were before he saw it. There was no mistaking the sound of the open sea, the gentle gush of water moving back and forth, the insistence of the movement; the sound of seagulls just above, making polite and occasionally not-so-polite conversation; even the sound of the silence, a silence that was only audible to a sailor. Killian knew he would never forget a sound like this.

He also would not forget how he almost fell headfirst into the ocean when taking his first step out of the TARDIS.

He was expecting the Jolly. Heck, even a midsize cruiseliner or yacht would have been just fine. What he wasn't expecting was a tiny lifeboat barely half the size of their bedroom.

Desperately grabbing at the slippery edges of the boat, he peered up at Emma in annoyance. "You really couldn't find any other boat for us to land in?"

She shrugged. "It's my first time piloting the thing. I only know so much from watching them do it on the show."

Killian looked back at the TARDIS, which was impossibly heavy, and then at the boat, which was impossibly flimsy. "How are we not sinking?"

"Don't question the laws of time and space. Sit down and relax." Emma tapped the spot next to her on the lifeboat, which was covered in water and some green substance he preferred not to identify. Killian obliged.

"So, where exactly are we?"

"The Bermuda Triangle." Emma looked up at him expectantly. Noting the confusion in his eyes, she continued. "It's in the North Atlantic Ocean - the ocean facing Storybrooke. Legend says that it's only here that the compass points true north. Often times, when sailors come around these parts, they don't come back out."

Killian's head jerked up at that last bit. "Well, not this sailor. Do we know why this Bermuda square is so deadly? I've encountered many a sea beast in my day."

"No one really knows. They love to come up with ideas in all kinds of movies and shows. I guess we'll find out for real…"

The two of them sat in the silence for a while, watching the waves roll back and forth. The blue seemed to stretch out for miles. Miles and miles of it, in innumerable shades - a pleasant teal, a shade the color of the sky, an oily black -

An oily black?

Killian's eyes zeroed in on a strip of dark water just within the range of his vision. Only… this water was moving against the flow of the current. There was no reason for that to happen, unless…

He squeezed Emma's hand. "Swan! Look over there, what's that?"

Her eyes widened as she took it in. "Crap. Time for us to go." The two of them stood, and she yanked at the TARDIS door, ready to jump inside.

It didn't open.

"I thought you said it wasn't locked!"

"I guess we closed it on our way out? I still don't know how this works!"

"Well, we don't have that much time to find out. We need to get out of here."

The black streak was getting closer. Killian spotted a pair of severe yellow eyes peeking out above the crests of the waves. He shuddered.

"Okay, okay, let's think. What can we do? It's not going to open unless…" She pounded on the door. "Hey, TARDIS! I know you can hear me. We may not be Time Lords, but… we could really use a ride?"

Killian brushed his fingers over the door. Nothing.

"Damn it." Emma looked more determined than he'd ever seen her. "It works when the Doctor does it." She looked one more time at the stubborn blue box. "Look, I know you can hear me. I'm not stupid, and I know you can let us in. It's kind of important!"

Nothing.

The streak was close enough for Killian to know it was more than just a streak - a creature that, in all his years of sailing, he had never set eyes on before. He certainly was not in the mood to break that trend today.

Time was running out. Emma was still pleading with the doors, but to no avail. They needed a way in - and fast. Killian doubted the black mass heading towards him would give them much of a head start.

Emma collapsed against the doors, letting out a loud sigh. "This is hopeless. We're going to die in the Bermuda Triangle, aren't we?"

Killian slipped his hand into hers. "Don't give up just yet, Swan. You always find a way. _We_ always do."

She smiled up at him, a tear blooming in her eye - though from frustration or appreciation, he couldn't quite tell. He lifted a hand towards her face and pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. Her eyes followed his gesture. "Thanks."

Emma ran a hand absent-mindedly through the rest of her hair, one of her fingers resting on a hair pin she'd used in the morning to wrestle it into place.

She paused.

"Wait."

In that moment, Killian knew they were going to survive this.

"Oh my god. Killian. I've got it." Emma yanked the hair pin out of her hair and pulled another from the other side. She ran to the side of the TARDIS and jammed her hair pins into the lock.

All he could do was smile at the fact that his girlfriend was actually, seriously picking the lock to a centuries-old time machine.

And glance nervously at the hellbeast drawing uncomfortably closer.

"Swan, I appreciate your stroke of genius, but if we could move just a little bit faster…"

"I'm getting it, I'm getting it, just give me a minute!" She moved in a sort of dance, twisting the hair pins back and forth and twisting her eyes in concentration.

Killian looked back at the black streak. They had twenty seconds, if he was being generous.

"Emma?"

"I got it, I got it, I…" Killian heard a distinct click, and the door swung open in defeat. Emma pressed her fist to the door. "Ha! Take that, TARDIS!"

Killian rested his hand on her shoulder. "Emma?"

"Hm?"

"Let's go."

She looked back once, looked back at Killian, and then sprinted inside. He was quick to follow.

"Do you know how to get us out of here?"

"Not sure, but I guess we'll find out?"

"Emma!"

"Okay, I'm trying, I'm trying!"

Emma fumbled with the buttons on the console, first trying to puzzle them out, then giving up and slamming her hand down onto all of them. "That should do the trick."

Killian heard the sucking sound and sank down onto the floor. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.

"Well, that was close. Where to next? Your pick, Emma."

It had taken Killian a little while to formulate a decision for his trip, but it only took Emma a matter of seconds. "I know just the place."

In the moments before they landed, Killian had thought up a few guesses as to where they were going. Emma was always talking about Paris, so that had made the list; she'd also been going on and on about something called a roller coaster, which she'd promised to take Killian on. But stepping out of the TARDIS into their living room was definitely not what he'd considered.

Emma was right behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "What do you think?"

"Care to explain, Swan?"

She giggled. "We could go anywhere in the universe, Killian. We could fight aliens on Mars or visit the colonists in 1776 or even go to the future and see whether or not I hyphenate. But no matter where or when we are, it doesn't really matter to me. As long as I'm with you."

Killian had never felt so at home before in his life. "Sounds good to me."

Emma gave his hips a squeeze and planted a breathy kiss on his cheek. "Great. Then let's get started. We have 50 years of episodes to catch you up on."

Killian looked back at the gigantic blue box in the middle of their foyer. "Are we going to do anything about that?"

Emma smiled knowingly. "I have a feeling that whoever's looking for it will figure it out soon enough." She laced her hands into his and tugged. "Come on. The couch is looking especially exciting, after sitting on that god-awful lifeboat for that long."

Killian could only do what he had done for years and he would do every time she asked him to: he followed.

The lights were off and the night was dark when the door creaked open. A dark figure, features unidentifiable, stepped into the faded blue house. A pair of inquisitive eyes swept the room, looking for something that simply had to be there.

She saw it.

Sighing with relief, she raced towards her blue box and ran a protective hand down the front. "Thank heaven," she murmured. Just before she stepped inside, her eyes wandered to the couple fast asleep on the couch, their heads nestled into each other and their fingers still interlocked. So these were the infidels who'd stolen her TARDIS?

Humans never failed to surprise her.

Disgruntled, she reached into her pocket for her screwdriver, stepped inside the TARDIS, and gently closed the door.

Best not to wake them.


End file.
